Malnutrition - ALIMA - The Alliance for Medical Action

Acute malnutrition

In 2020, more than 45 million children under the age of five were affected by acute malnutrition (Source: WHO 2021). ALIMA is mobilizing to invest in innovative solutions and treat many more children suffering from this disease.

Context

According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition in all its forms accounts for the death of one in two children worldwide. For those who survive, it leaves lasting effects such as infirmity, chronic vulnerability to disease, and intellectual disability. Yet it is treatable and preventable.

Although effective treatment exists, 80% of malnourished children do not have access to it (source: The Lancet Global Health). This is why ALIMA has decided to act in order to treat more children.

763,000

people trained by ALIMA to screen their children for malnutrition using the MUAC bracelet in 2021

116,168

acutely malnourished children treated by ALIMA in 2021, including 22,361 severely malnourished children hospitalized

106

health personnel and local agents trained in the OptiMA approach (Optimizing the management of acute malnutrition) in 2021.

ALIMA’s Response

The story of ALIMA began in Niger in 2009, when the country was facing a serious nutritional crisis. The first project, started in Zinder, allowed for the care of 4,500 severely malnourished children, in partnership with the Nigerian NGO BEFEN (Well-Being of Women and Children in Niger).

Since then, each year, ALIMA has been taking care of over a hundred thousand severely malnourished children in its 13 countries of intervention.

In 10 years, the organization has developed an effective approach to fight malnutrition and save lives. In addition to curative care activities to treat children, ALIMA combines prevention programs with research to improve techniques and protocols for the treatment of malnutrition.

Its primary goal is to simplify the current treatment approach so that all children suffering from acute malnutrition, regardless of severity, are treated in a single program.

Cover picture © Sylvain Cherkaoui / ALIMA

Our activities

The “1,000 Days” program, which provides pre- and post-natal care for pregnant women and their children up to the age of 2, including the provision of small amounts of lipid-based nutritional supplements (SQ-LNS) from 6-18 or 6-23 months.

The MUAC for Mothers program, which involves families and educates them to be proactive in the early diagnosis of the disease in their children (in particular through the simple use of a three-colored MUAC bracelet).

The OptiMA research project, which aims to eliminate the existing therapeutic silos between care programs for moderately and severely acutely malnourished children by integrating all acutely malnourished children into a single program.